Retail’s next big shift: AI-powered shopping journeys
Grocers, get ready for the new AI-assisted shopping world.
Consumers are moving away from traditional search methods and turning to AI tools for personalized shopping conversations. But this shift goes beyond AI guiding purchases—autonomous AI agents will eventually make purchases on shoppers’ behalf.
These shifts are explored in a new global study by the IBM Institute for Business Value, in partnership with the National Retail Federation (NRF). The study, titled “Own the agentic commerce journey,” found that nearly half of Canadians (45%) now use AI in their shopping journeys, from researching products to reading reviews to hunting for deals. AI app usage in Canada increased 82% in two years, and conversational commerce—including chat, voice and messaging—is becoming a primary way to discover and buy products.
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“On a global scale, we’re seeing that shift from curiosity to regular usage,” says Jayme Johnson, partner & industry leader at IBM Consulting Canada. And while brick-and-mortar stores aren’t going away—the survey found that 82% of Canadians still shop in-store— Johnson reiterates that “nearly a majority are using AI to guide that buying journey.”
Beyond chatting to buying: The AI evolution
How might this play out in grocery retail? Johnson gives the example of a host asking for a recipe recommendation for an eight-person dinner, factoring in various food restrictions and preferences. With an AI agent, which the study notes can take action on a user’s behalf when given clear goals and permissions, the process goes one step further: buying all the ingredients.
“Now, I’m giving the AI agent the ability to choose the store, if I haven’t stated a preference, and make the product selection,” says Johnson. “The recipe doesn’t specify a food-manufacturer brand, it just calls for the ingredients. So now, the agent is also making product-level decisions.”
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As AI agents move from concept to reality, the survey shows Canadians want practical helpers. That includes deal hunters (39%), customer service agents (33%), product review agents (27%) and personal shoppers (23%).
Johnson says there’s also interest in emerging agents like lifestyle agents that can help plan meals and achieve health and wellness goals (20%) and purchasing agents that can help them manage and replenish their food and household needs (18%). These agents are ones to watch, according to Johnson, “because that’s what’s coming next in grocery when we think about planning meals, helping with replenishment, personal shopping and finding deals. When you put all of those together, it’s a powerful orchestration of agents making decisions on your behalf.”
Other digital preferences Canadians cited in the survey are “super apps” combining commerce and services (28%), smart-home shopping with AI personal shoppers and autonomous delivery (24%) and effortless social platform purchasing (27%).
How grocers can thrive in the age of AI
For retailers and brands, the rise of agentic AI means taking action to help your store and your product get selected. “You almost have to treat AI agents as a new customer segment in terms of how you identify, target and integrate with them, so that you can influence them in the same way you try to influence the human side of that shopping experience,” says Johnson.
Grocers must also address concerns about trust and privacy. The survey found that while 52% of Canadians are comfortable sharing data, they remain concerned about privacy (45%), misuse of data (39%) and data resale without their consent (34%).
Johnson says the two main drivers of trust are personalization and transparency. “The critical ingredient to powering both of those is data,” she says, adding that it’s critical to get that data right. “Data is often vast, varied and scattered across the enterprise,” she says. On top of that, retailers are contending with challenges like security concerns and shortages in AI expertise. Businesses must work through these challenges “to build trust and not erode it,” Johnson says.
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Another recommendation is to focus on creating a seamless experience. “It’s not just a solely human experience or a solely AI experience,” says Johnson. “People jump back and forth—they may start with an AI tool to do some research, they may go to the store, they may then make a purchase through an agent.”
While she adds that retailers have always been focused on understanding customers and finding ways to bring the physical and digital together, it’s becoming more complex with the rise of AI and agentic commerce.
“Part of that is making sure your stores and products are discoverable in the agentic era so that AI agents can find them and weave them into those purchasing decisions, authenticate you and be able to work across the ecosystem,” says Johnson.
